The reporter behind Pharmalot is Ed Silverman, who has covered pharmaceuticals for 12 years for the local newspaper (northern New Jersey is filled with pharmaceutical firms). The basic concept behind Pharmalot is that in the course of working his beat, Ed was already accumulating enough news to compete with any national publication in the space. So by moving to a blog platform, he was able to expand both his coverage and reach nationally.

Now Pharmalot isn’t a business threat to existing b-to-b publishers. At least not yet. A quick look through the site indicates that the ad staff at the newspaper hasn’t learned to sell high-cost ads targeting readers from the pharmaceutical industry. Rather the ads are the same low-cost run-of-site nonsense that you’ll find anywhere else on a newspaper site. But it probably won’t be long before someone there finds out that targeted b-to-b ads are worth more than branding buttons from Ford and WaMu.

More importantly, it won’t be long before other newspapers realize there’s potential (and some easy money) in duplicating the Pharmalot model. There are thousands of business reporters covering hundreds of beats at newspapers across the country. And odds are there’s at least one who would pose a competitive threat to any b-to-b publication you could name.

So if you’re an editor or executive at a traditional, print-based publishing company, it’s time to ask yourself three questions:

1. Who are the best newspaper reporters covering the beat that my magazine/Web site covers? (If you have the budget, it may be time to hire away anyone who poses a serious threat.)

2. Are any of those newspaper reporters capable of launching a Web-based, national version of what they already do locally? (Ignore the print-based legacy reporters. But keep your eye on anyone who appears Web-savvy.)

3. How is it possible for a daily newspaper reporter to create an all-new product based on what he learns from working his beat when the staff at my monthly magazine says they’re too busy to write daily stories for the Web? (It’s probably well past the time to dump some staffers and move to a Web-first workflow.)